12.30.2010

2010. What a year! It's about that time when we all sum our memories and experience from the year past. We decided to compile some of the best releases, tracks and trends from 2010 in our view. Not in any particular order or ranking. Just a few pieces of amazing music that never left our headphones during the last 12 months. Here we go!

Thestrom's 2010 picks:

Jay Electronica: Exhibit A, B & C.

These days it doesn't happen very often that we're blown away by a new MC, but Timothy Elpadaro Thedford a.k.a. Jay Electronica did just that. With amazing storytelling skills backed by Just Blaze's cinematic beats his exhibit A, B & C stopped me in my track everytime it popped up in my headphones. We're very much looking forward to an official album release in 2011.

Jay Electronica - Exhibit B

Jay Electronica - Exhibit C

Mala (Digital Mystikz) - Return to spaceSouth London dubstep pioneer Mala dropped his highly anticipated album "Return II space". It was released on his own DMZ imprint and hasn't left my daily commute playlist since it dropped in July. He has such a unique sound that blends that deep dubby laidback vibe with menacing beats and dirty basslines. It was the mindblowing soundtrack to one of the hottest summers of the decade.

Robert Glasper - DillaludesDilla passed almost five years ago but he's still very much present. Robert Glaspers unreleased live performance of his stunning dillaludes was one of my strongest musical memories of 2010.

Jazz pianist, Robert Glasper, worked with Dilla several times and the dillaludes are his ode to the late James Yancey. He recreates the vibe of some of James Yancey's finest moments together with his live band including drummer extraordinare Chris Dave. We challange you to unveil what classic dillatracks he's covering...

Mark Pritchard/Harmonic 313/Africa HiTechMark is a longtime Beathearts favourite. Every since the days of his Jedi Knights and Global Communication projects I've followed his every release with great anticipation. 2010 was no exception with absolutely stunning tracks, remakes and collaborations with people like Wiley, Steve Spacek and others. We have very high hopes that a full lenght Africa HiTech album will see the light of day in 2011.

2010 - Year of the AfrobeatWe never saw it coming but 2010 turned out to be the year when Afrobeat came back. Cratediggers turning to south central Africa instead of south central Los Angeles for crate digging. The spotlights were turned back on Afrobeat legends such as Ebo Taylor who after all these years got a new record deal and released his first album in years.

Afrobeat parties seemed to pop up everywhere and the tribute/cover mixtapes never stopped coming. One of the better productions was J.Period and K'Naan's The messengers.

Finally, and I never thought I'd say this but, Jay-Z, Will Smith and Questlove put together a stunning broadway show (!) entitled Fela covering the life story of Fela Anikulapo Kuti. It raised the awareness of Fela's (and Africas) amazing muscial heritage to a whole new audience.

Wow! Now this is something out of the ordinary (hence the full width video). A full hour sit down with two of the greatest of all times going through the making of classic tracks. Taken of a Pete Rock & DJ Premier battle-DVD released in Japan earlier this year via Juno. Goose bump material. Enjoy!

12.29.2010

Mark is one of those genius producers we don't talk about enough. Putting out a constant flow of amazing tunes, remixes, mixtapes and live shows he definitely deserves more recognition. With styles ranging from jazz jamsessions and broken beats to nu-soul and soulful garage house among other things he's responsible for one of our favourite two-part-tracks of all time: Heaven part I & II.

As we were reading through his year in review over at his Mashibeats blog we were a bit ashamed that we haven't done a single piece on him all year. I mean check the summary of his output this year:

Finally we are very happy to hear that his resident jam over att Church in Santa Monica, LA is evolving into a recording concept! Mark explains:

"CHURCH is my platform to bring together a blend of everything i love and show my own personal journey through music. The first set kicks off with an acoustic jazz trio set, and over the night that morphs into the second set complete with MPC drum machine, fx, synths and guests jamming. It's become that one thing that musically has really made me feel at home here in LA. It's already completely memorable with unexpected guests jamming."

Sandra St Victor ft Mark de Clive-Lowe - Cosmos

Mark de Clive-Lowe presents Rahel - Hope

Check out his amazing music via the links embedded above, purchase and support it if you're digging it!

Marc Wollowy and the Tokyo Dawn crew has done it again! Another amazing compilation this time with what they call a "Boogie" theme. Marc explains:

"Based on groove fundamentals such as 80's and 90's R&B, Minneapolis funk and early electro, this compilation holds 18 modern approaches to what we like to call boogie music.

Combining neon synths and soul chords with a decent portion of future funk, we're invited to ride an exciting new wave of artists combining latest production techniques with classic grooves deeply rooted in 80's boogie wonderland."

There are favourites from the year that past such as B.Bravo's laidback electro bubbler Computa love. They also included a future albumtrack from the German production and DJ collective Soulparlor who we believe are gonna blow up in 2011.

But we particulary enjoyed the fact that they decided to revisit a huge Beatheart favourite from 1983: The Rah Band - Message from the stars. On this compilation revisited by Atjazz. Check the remix and get the original below! Oh, and as a christmas bonus we included DJ Koze's kick ass mix of Clouds across the moon. Enjoy!

12.18.2010

This treat comes from AFTA-1, which we covered earlier. One of the most beautiful tracks we've heard recently. From the 4 songs EP H(e y e)land. "This album is a Life Translation - A direct reflection of my experiences in life & love on the week of 10/20/10 - 10/27/10: the week it was created."

12.02.2010

Sorry for not posting in a while, there's been a lot of work lately, plus been away from home 'cus of a minor water damage in the apartment, living in a wore down rental with a slow connection the last few month, but back on track in a couple of days!

The good music keep on coming though, 'the strom' been holdin' it up lately..!

To start of slow, here's a lovely Goapele tune! This is an unreleased remix of 'Different' off Goapele's last album 'Change it All' featuring the always steady Mos Def and produced by CA native Bedrock/Iambedrock. The album version featured Clyde Carson, and this version was recorded after the album was released as a remix and was previously unreleased due to industry politics.